Yes! You can do it. You don’t need to go to Starbucks and shell out $5 for a holiday seasonal latte. You don’t need to pack on ten extra pounds before you ever reach Aunt Ida’s turkey on the Thanksgiving table because you’ve been indulging in the new Gingerbread Grande with Extra Whipped Cream. How do I know? Because I have delved into the dark and scary recesses of my mind and come up with a coffee recipe that couldn’t be easier, has no extra calories, and is practically free.

Years ago I had a waitressing job at a shore club that catered weddings and such. The Long Island Sound and sand just feet from the windows meant they were a popular place (less so the year the hurricane hit and we were in the middle of a wedding in a heated tent outside on the sand in December. Yeah…But anyway…)

Well they had a signature coffee and though this was about 22 years ago, I still remember the ingredients and how good it tasted. There, we would throw a broken cinnamon stick, a spoon of sugar and a spoon of espresso grounds right in the coffee filter with the regular coffee grounds when making a pot. And just those few simple ingredients infused the pot of coffee with a subtle layer of warm flavor that everyone loved but not one guest every said, “Ew, is this flavored coffee?”

I recently was at the food store searching for the new Pumpkin Dunkin Donuts grounds and they didn’t have them. Since I’m on deadline, I’ve been drinking a lot of extra coffee and I was truly disappointed to not have what I was looking for available for me. I made a stop in the dairy aisle and picked up the Coffeemate Pumpkin Spice creamer, but one look at the label, and my ever-widening waistline, and I put it back down. Yes, before you all write in it’s only 30 calories a serving, go ahead and measure how much you put in your coffee cup. I estimated last year I was using 3 spoons per cup and I was up to 2 cups a day. My small frame can’t afford almost 200 extra calories daily, especially during the holiday seasons.

So, I went to the spice aisle and picked up a jar of cinnamon sticks–and put them down again because the price was INSANE and we were on our way to Sam’s Club anyway where I again visited the spice aisle and lo and behold, there I found a large jar of cinnamon sticks at a bargain price.

Now, each morning I do this… I put one broken cinnamon stick in the filter basket THEN on top of that I put the paper filter. The coffee grounds go inside that. I’m lazy so I rarely remember to add the espresso grounds. And I’m worried about calories so I forego the spoon of sugar most days. But the coffee dripping over the cinnamon sticks gives it a lovely flavor. Then I add my usual everyday creamer and sweetener and I’m happily drinking a lovely spiced winter brew.

When I throw out the coffee filter to clean the maker, I save the cinnamon sticks to use the next day. They are clean because they were under the filter and didn’t touch the grounds. You can probably get a week out of one stick.

So there you go…lots of time and energy spent over a cup of coffee but what can I say, it makes me happy. I haven’t tried it yet, but I bet you could use nutmeg or cloves or some other spices and make your own concoction at home.

Enjoy!

Cat

As I’ve mentioned here before, my friends and I are foodies. We get together weekly at one house and basically cook and eat together. I won’t say it’s exactly like the scene in the movie The Big Chill, but I’ll admit there is sometimes singing, and even once some dancing…long story. Anyway, we fancy ourselves cheese afficienados–so much so that one among us (who shall remain nameless) was told by his doctor his cholesterol was too high. His answer, “It’s not my fault. My wife enrolled me in the cheese of the month club.” No it wasn’t me or my husband, but we do all love our cheese, and I love all things cowboy, so when said cheese lover with high cholesterol was shopping at Fairway and saw cheese with the above cowgirl logo on it, he picked it up immediately, and oh my God was it good!

The one we had was the Mt Tam. So creamy. So tasty. So expensive! (The small round we had was $20.) But oh so good. So much so I was intrigued, as much by the name of the company as by the cheese. Here is what I found out about them…

The company was begun by 2 women in 1997 in a small coastal town in CA. I LOVE supporting small business and women-owned businesses even better. This artisan cheese is actually made in an old renovated barn–another thing I love to support–the reuse and repurposing of old buildings. For this handmade cheese, they buy organic milk from their neighbor. Yet one more thing I love–supporting America’s small farmers, not to mention how environmentally friendly it is to use local resources rather than trucking things from across the country, or worse, from another country.

You can read more about the Cowgirl Creamery and their philosophies regarding not only cheese, but also preserving rural life HERE. And even if you can’t buy Cowgirl Cheese where you live, I bet there’s a farmer’s market not too far away that sells artisan cheese made locally with the same loving care from local milk farmed by…you guessed it, local cowboys and cowgirls.

Cat

As I mentioned last post my friends and I, who gather weekly to share a meal, decided to add some flair to the get-togethers by creating a themed menu around periods in history. Though I hope we can skip out of order later and do a Colonial meal, as well as a Southern Civil War Era one, we began with the first decade of the 1900s. The menu choices were to be inspired by our personal heritages since that period in US history was the age of immigration and we chose Ellis Island as our theme.

So we had German, Irish, Italian, Jewish and Polish all represented in various mixes among us and here is the menu we served; once you read it you will see what I mean about the too many cooks because there was much too much food and way too many carbs, but perhaps that is my 21st Century sensibilities talking.

Drinks: German Beer, Italian Wine

Appetizers: Polish Kielbassa & German Knockwurst served with German Pretzels in a honey mustard dipping sauce. Italian Pizza Rustica, Irish Dubliner Cheese with crackers, Italian Olives

First Course: Jewish Matzoh Ball Soup

Main Course: Irish Shepards Pie, Tossed Green Salad w/ Italian Vinaigrette

Desserts: Jewish Chocolate & Raspberry-filled Rugalah, German Almond Pastry Puffs, Apple Kugel, and Raspberry Tart, and 2 boxes of assorted purchased Italian bakery cookies.

That doesn’t include the hot wings and fried chicken cutlets we also served to the children because they turned their noses up at our fare. So you can imagine the kitchen, every square inch covered in food. If you were one of the 3 people who actually logged in to our live streaming web broadcast you don’t have to imagine!

Anyway, we are going to do this again in spite of the “are you insane?” look I got from my husband last week when he heard it was a “themed dinner”. It will probably be in 2 weeks we’ll do the second decade of the 19th century, the theme being World War I. This time I am hoping we plan a tighter, more contained and less random menu. I have some of my cookbooks and old magazines out looking for popular drinks of the period and researching what foods were rationed because of the war. A book I discovered on my shelves, Vintage Cocktails: Authentic Recipes and Illustrations from 1920-1960,says that in 1914 “As World War I rages, the Martini is America’s number-one cocktail, known throughout the world as the symbol of all things civilized.”

So there you go. Perhaps I’ll pack an overnight bag for this one since we might be drinking martinis. You may want to tune in to the live streaming broadcast.

What is this of which I speak? They decided to each week choose a different decade and plan a meal around the food popular during that time period, and somehow it morphed to also include the drinks of the period and the clothing. I personally think our friend Grace simply wanted an excuse to dress up, but whatever, it’s happening.

Tomorrow we begin with the turn of the century. The age of immigration in this great country of ours when the huddled masses poured through Ellis Island carrying with them their meager belongings, whatever name the overworked immigration official bestowed upon them, and the foods native to their homeland.

This project has taken on a life of its own and tomorrow I’ll be cooking and I suppose looking for some sort of babushka to wear. We’re hoping to get a live cam up and running in the coming weeks so fans can join us for our weekly culinary travels through time. Hell, if nothing else, it should be entertaining!

There was just something about it all–the freshness, the old fashioned glass bottles–added to the lakeside setting, that made the coffee richer, the milk colder, the whole experience better.

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, maybe it’s time we all took a step back to simpler times. And even if you can’t get away to a lake, I bet with a little research you can find milk in glass bottles locally.  Give it a try! You won’t be regret the experience.

The clams are barely an hour old when we’d bring them back to the house and throw them in the closed shells on a hot BBQ grill rack. They cook only until they open up, then you take them in hand, shoot just a dash of hot sauce and eat them, all hot and tasty good, right out of the shells. No utensils, no plates. Add an icy cold beer to cool the fire of the hot sauce and you’ve got all you need.

Of course, for the catching this year, since clamming began at low tide which was 8 in the morning, we indulged in Mimosas made right on the boat out of Prosecco and orange juice.

This year we did something a little different. Since we had a professional chef with us, he insisted we not use the bounty up for our little grilling/drinking party. Instead, he brought the clams back to our rental’s kitchen and turned them into incredible home made chowder on the first night, so light and tasty people went back for third helpings. Then on the next night, the rest were made into Linguini and Clam Sauce, with tons of garlic, good olive oil and fresh parsley.

Another summer’s Rhode Island vacation has come and gone, but the memories will last forever and next year we’ll be back. Clams, look out!

There’s this guy in a truck I stumbled upon a few years ago. He starts up the smoker in the morning, fills it full of ribs, drives to a parking lot and sits there. When the ribs are properly smoked, he’s open for business. When they’re gone, he’s done for the day. Incredible food and I was happy to find him parked along the road. Extra nice in this day of chain restaurants churning out mass amounts of cookie-cutter food.

Today I was equally as lucky. I stumbled upon a new BBQ place literally in a hole in the wall. The Round Up Texas Texas BBQ is on Rt. 9 in Cold Spring (Putnam County, NY) and is stuck in a parking lot behind Old Post Hardware. If there wasn’t a sign along the road (and smoke billowing out of the smoker) we would have never seen it.

The atmosphere is wooden picnic tables with rolls of paper towels on them, longhorns and indian blankets on the walls, and one huge flatscreen TV tuned to golf, but you are not there for the atmosphere, believe me. You are there for the brisket smoked 18 hours and the fall-off-the-bone ribs. An hour later I can still taste the smokey flavor in the back of my throat. It’s rare to have food that sticks with you–in a good way. The chicken was good (the skin was the best part). The spicy sausage was also good. But the stars were the brisket and ribs in my opinion, along with some wonderful and surprisingly spicy mac and cheese.

Places like that are few and far between in a world populated with Outback Steakhouses and Applebees. I’m making it my personal mission to make sure the little guys stick around.

Yes, I’ve been to the farm stands that line Long Island’s Rt. 27 on the drive out to Montauk. But somehow a farm stand and a farmers market are different. I learned that last Thursday when I met my friend at the one in her town. She’s lived there close to 15 years and this is the first I’ve heard of a farmers market taking over the library parking lot in the middle of Armonk, NY supposedly every Thursday of the summer from 3-5 PM. Is it new? Somehow I doubt it. I think it just hit our radar finally now that she is a health nut and is eating all things natural, or organic, or pesticide-free, or whatever you want to call it.

I have to say this, it was an experience and I feel healthier for simply having been there. There was pretty much anything you could want, from fresh fruit and vegetables, to fresh-baked sweets, local wine, honey and even products made from fresh herbs such as lavender sachets. Every booth offered not only nature’s bounties, but also some pretty nice looking, strapping young farm hands peddling their wares–that was a pleasant surprise, I can tell you.

We walked out with the largest head of cauliflower either one of us had ever seen. It must have been the size of a basketball, but after roasting it with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper in the oven, we devoured almost every last ounce. The sunflower sprouts purchased dressed up the garden’s yield of arugula nicely. And the olive and sun-dried tomato tapenade made an excellent appetizer when served with Brie cheese and crackers. For dessert we had ginger cookies sold by Big Girl Baked Goods. Good cookies but worth buying just for the name alone.

All in all I would say a successful trip and one I will happily repeat. Donna now hits a few different farmers markets a week in our area since apparently they travel and set up in different towns each day of the week. With our reusable shopping bag, buying locally grown produce from small farmers rather than supporting the big chain stores with imported goods that travel thousands of miles in big, gas-guzzling, carbon-emitting trucks, I really felt like I was doing something good, on top of getting the freshest possible produce, grown without hormones or chemicals. They also freely and happily give out samples of the food.

So find a farmers market near you, grab a nice rattan or canvas bag and some cash and make an event of it.  The one we went to even had live music–a singer on guitar. And the hot farmers were pretty nice too.

Until next time, happy marketing.

Cat

I’ve gone through life very happily with my eyes closed, simply selecting something off the grocery store shelf that promised tasty goodness on my tongue without much thought past the pretty picture on the package. I am of the Red Dye #2 generation, where we children saw the complete disappearance of red M&Ms for years because someone, somewhere had decided they would give us cancer. I didn’t much care–the green ones were my favorite anyway.

Yet there I was this morning, whipping up a bowl of 1% milk with the powdered contents of a package of sugar free, instant, artificially-flavored pistachio pudding and as the powder hit the milk, and my whisk hit the powder, it all turned into what looked like an unappetizing bowl full of leprechaun semen. I immediately looked to the packaging and, ridiculously so I know, was shocked to see right on the front the words “artificially flavored”. No kidding! How about “artificially colored”?

I’ve made this name brand dessert many times over the years and I’ve never thought twice about it, but as I’ve said, I’ve been ruined by my friend who is on a new health kick and has forced us all to re-examine our eating habits. Some changes I’ve found easy. Things like using my stainless steel water bottle instead of plastic bottles, or microwaving leftovers only in glass rather than in used, plastic, chinese take-out containers. Other changes I am finding incredibly difficult. I haven’t enjoyed a cup of coffee since she convinced me to give up my artificial sweetener and powdered creamer. I’ve tried half and half, heated and frothed milk, soy milk, sugar, agave, and all combinations in between and I’m still not happy. The worst part is, when I gave up and tried to go back to my old ways, that now tastes funny to me too. Maybe I need to switch to tea…

Anyway, I have no answers for you, only whining. Sorry, my only excuse is that it is early in the morning, my coffee tastes like crap and I have leprechaun sperm in my fridge. Maybe it’s time to get back to the past. The days when my father would harvest his homegrown vegetables (fertilized only with manure and compost) and my mother would preserve them in Ball jars for the winter. When we had our own chickens who roamed the yard eating bugs and laying fresh eggs. I’m not talking Colonial times (I’m only 43 years old after all). This was a decade or two ago. How have things changed so quickly? Maybe it’s time we considered changing back.

Cat

OPERATION BBQ FOR THE TROOPS -Watch the Video on FoodNetwork

Watch barbecuing US Marine style in this Food Network video.

JARHEAD RED WINE

Jarhead Jarhead Red is a wine made by Marines on Californiaís Central Coast. It offers flavors of plum, cassis and black currant with fine tannins on the finish. It is aged in French oak barrels for eight months. Net proceeds from the sale of the wine benefit the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, which provides educational assistance to children of U.S. Marines, with special attention given to children of fallen Marines. For more information on the foundation, please visit www.mcsf.org. Visit www.jarheadred.com for more fun facts, info and ordering information.